Volunteer Delivers Meals, Compassion

May 18, 1994|By Jeffrey Steele. Special to the Tribune.

About three years ago, a special request went out to the parishioners of St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Naperville.

Ginnie Boyle, a member of the church, asked for volunteers to package and deliver meals to the homebound in Naperville and Aurora. Boyle is the director of the Home Delivered and Congregate Meals program of the Naperville Senior Dining Center, a division of the DuPage Senior Citizens Council.

Tim Ryan quickly volunteered. Since then, he has been packaging and delivering meals to elderly and disabled residents on a weekly basis. He also fills in for other volunteers who help package the meals.

The food is prepared by a Batavia caterer, which brings it in bulk to the Naperville Senior Dining Center, 305 W. Jackson Ave. Ryan and other volunteers package hot and cold food for delivery to the clients.

Typically, the hot part of the meals includes meat or poultry, potatoes or rice, and a vegetable. Cold items include a container of milk, bread and butter, and a dessert, such as a cup of pudding or piece of cake.

"When the hot food comes in, it's in large trays which we put in steam tables," Ryan says. "We package each meal from the food in those trays. We put each meal in a rectangular tin container and cover it with a cardboard top that has (insulating) foil on one side.

"Then we put each meal into a heating oven to keep it hot until it's ready to be delivered."

The cold parts also have to be packaged, he says. "Some of the cold items, like fruits and desserts, also come in bulk. We'll dish out pineapple, pudding or cake into a (polystyrene foam) container, then put those along with milk, butter and bread into brown paper bags. Those sacks go into an upright refrigerator until they're ready to be delivered."

Ryan delivers food to clients each Wednesday morning. He arrives at the center about 11 and picks up 10 lunches, packing the hot lunches into a portable polystyrene foam container to keep them warm and putting the paper bags in a polystyrene foam cooler.

After placing the containers on the seat of his pickup truck, he sets out to deliver them.

His route is in the west part of Naperville, from downtown west to Fox Valley Villages subdivision. He was chosen for that route because he lives on the west side of town, Ryan says.

"I make seven deliveries to widows or widowers who live alone, one to a disabled man in his early 50s, and two deliveries to older married couples," he adds.

Ryan says the length of his route prevents him from staying longer than a few minutes with each recipient.

"There's a lot of distance to cover, and we want the meals to be served hot," he says.

Ryan finds there are many rewards in volunteering for the program. Chief among them is the chance to help other people less fortunate than himself, he says.

"I've been given so much in life," he observes. "I have a family, we all have jobs, and we all have enough to eat. I've got a lot. So it feels good to give something back."

The people to whom he delivers the meals are very appreciative, he adds. "They always say, `Thank you.' They'll tell you (about their) aches and pains and ask about the weather and the driving. They often want to talk, but I have to be brief. I could sit and talk to each of them for a long time, but I have other meals to deliver."

Ryan has come to realize that the delivery volunteer may be the only person many of the clients see all day.

"We're often the only people checking up on them, because in many cases, their children have grown up and moved away," he says.

"We don't deliver on weekends, but we're there Monday through Friday. And the person who delivers on Friday always makes sure they have enough food in the house for the weekend," he adds.

His most memorable moment came two years ago when he was delivering meals on Monday mornings. He drove up to an elderly woman's home and noticed that the snow that had fallen the previous Friday had not been disturbed.

She was all right, but "nobody had visited her," he says. "She'd been alone the entire weekend. It made me feel good to be able to bring her a hot lunch."

Boyle praises Ryan's work. "Tim is one of those very special people," she says. "He possesses a great deal of dedication and compassion. He's willing to give his time and his talents to help those who might need some assistance."

The program serves about 200 people a day, including those who come into three dining centers in the community, Boyle says. Twenty-five volunteers deliver meals; another 20 work in the center.

The program was begun by the YMCA of Metro Chicago and was taken over by the DuPage Senior Citizens Council more than 10 years ago. Funding is provided in part by United Way, private donations and state funds.

The council also operates a number of other programs, including one in which homeowners can obtain recommendations for home-repair contractors and one in which teenagers help homeowners with minor household chores.